Page 117 of Midnight Between Us
But this kiss?
This kiss says it all.
And I kiss her back like I’m making a vow with my mouth, even if I don’t deserve her.
Even if this is all I get.
She pulls back.Breath ragged.
“I still hate you a little,” she whispers.
“That makes two of us,” I murmur against her mouth.“We’ll keep working—therapy, anything you need—it’s yours.”
And then I kiss her again.
This time slower.
This time, with all the things we’re still too afraid to say.
With every ache.Every memory.Every fucking heartbeat that survived the distance.
This kiss isn’t forgiveness.
It’s not a promise.
It’s a beginning.
Because even if we fall apart tomorrow, tonight—we’re choosing each other.
ChapterFifty-Eight
Simone
Did I sleep?
Barely.Rest hovered just out of reach, like a promise never kept.
That kiss ...that kiss.It shouldn’t have happened.Not yet.Not like that.
And yet, I initiated it.I couldn’tnotdo it.It’s been in the making since the night I found him inside that trunk, almost lifeless.I told myself I was saving him for Lyndon, for his brothers ...but deep down, I knew it was also for the girl who loved him with all her heart.
My fingertips brush my lips, still swollen, still marked by him.Hours have passed, but the memory is stubborn.It lives in my skin, in the places where his breath met mine, in the hush before we gave in.
He kissed me like he remembered every version of us.As if he knew exactly what I’d taste like after all these years.
Like slow didn’t matter.Like slow could wait.
Afterward, we said we’d be careful.We said we’d take our time, and rebuild with intention.Will this be a slow burn ...maybe, or maybe it’ll be about truth—and the truth is, I’ve never known how to stop myself from needing him.Not with my body.Not with my heart.
This morning, I try to keep myself busy.Try to pretend it was just a kiss.That it didn’t shift something tectonic inside me.That it wasn’t sacred in a way that made the air feel thinner than any other day.
But my thoughts unravel.
Am I making a mistake?
I ask it, not because I believe the answer is yes—but because I’m scared that it might be.That maybe trusting him again is like touching fire twice.However, walking away would be the real mistake.
Turning my back on something this intense—this rare—would leave the kind of regret that follows you for the rest of your life, curls into the silence beside you, and makes sure you never sleep easy again.
